On the phone

by Besties
Pick up/put on hold/hang up on
Your demanding boss calling during lunch 🍲
A colleague who always asks for help with IT problems 💻
A cheerful client just calling to say thanks (he is really wordy and
hard to interrupt)😊
An unknown number during a crucial presentation 🗣️
A supplier calling for the third time about a late payment 💰
A teammate asking for a coffee chat ☕
Your ex, who found out about your new position 💔
A customer complaining loudly about a delay 😡
Airport staff calling about a delayed flight✈️
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 Answering the Phone Professionally; Asking for Clarification; Arranging Meetings &
Schedules; Handling Issues or Complaints; Ending the Call Gracefully

I know I want to know

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Read the scripts of the phone conversations.
Say how polite and professional they were
from your perspective
 Emily (E):
Hello, Mr Cooper, this is Emily from Customer Care. I see you’re calling about the delayed
Receptionist (R): shipment.
C:
Thank you for calling BrightFlow Logistics, how That’s right. We were expecting it yesterday afternoon.
can I assist you today? E:
Client (C): First of all, your concern is the matter of urgency for us.
Let me check on that and get back to you shortly.
Hi, this is James Cooper from GlobalMart. I’m C:
calling about our recent shipment — it seems to be I’d appreciate that.

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delayed. E:
I’m afraid I don’t have that information right now, but I’ll follow up with you soon.
R: I appreciate you bringing this to our attention.
I’m afraid the line is breaking up, do you mind C:
repeating? Thank you, Emily. I appreciate your help with this matter.
E:
C: Absolutely. Also, I heard you’d scheduled a review call for tomorrow.
Sure. I said our shipment hasn’t arrived yet. Because of the delay, could we have a rain check on this one?
R: I’d like to set up a call to discuss this further after I confirm the new delivery date.
Let’s pencil in Thursday at 3 p.m. for now.
The sound was a bit muffled — could you speak up C:
a little? Thursday at 3 p.m. works for me.
E:
C:
Great. I’ll follow up with an email shortly with the call details and an update on the shipment.
Of course. I’m asking about the delayed shipment. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you.
R: C:
Likewise. Before we wrap up, could you confirm whether the delay will affect next week’s
Thank you for clarifying. I’ll put you through to
promotion?
Emily in Customer Care, who can assist you E:
further. At this stage we don’t expect any impact. In other words, everything else should go ahead as
planned
 Match the Phrases to Their Functions
a. I’m afraid the line is breaking up, do you mind

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[Link] & opening a call
repeating?
[Link] for repetition / clarifying when you can’t
hear well b. I’ll follow up with an email shortly.
[Link] a call to another person or department c. I appreciate your help with this matter.
[Link] empathy about a customer’s concern d. Let’s pencil in Thursday at 3 p.m. for now.
[Link] to check and respond later e. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you.
[Link] to postpone or reschedule f. I’ll put you through to the Technical Support team.
[Link] a meeting or future call g. Your concern is the matter of urgency for us.
[Link] fixing a date or time h. Thank you for calling BrightFlow Logistics, how
[Link]-phrasing what you just said for clarity can I assist you today?
[Link] a call politely
i. Could we have a rain check on this one?
[Link] and appreciating help or feedback
j. I’d like to set up a call to discuss this further.
k. In other words, the shipment will leave on
Monday.
Think about the professional equivalent of this dialogue
-Hey, Mia! Glad you picked up — how’s life?
-Hey, Em! All good. What’s up?
-So listen… about the road trip this weekend — I wanted to double-check something.
-Wait, you’re kinda breaking up, can you say that again?
-Haha, okay — I said I wanted to talk about the road trip.
-Cool. The sound’s a bit fuzzy — could you talk a bit louder?
-Sure! So, basically, the plan changed — we’re leaving Saturday morning instead of Friday night.
-Ohhh, I see.
-Hang on a sec, I’m gonna loop Alex in on this call so he’s in the know too.
-Thanks! Honestly, I was worried — I thought I’d have to miss work Friday.
-Hey, I totally get it — it’s important to you.
-Yeah, thanks for sorting it all out.
-No problem. I still need to check the cabin availability — I’ll look it up and text you in a bit.
-Okay, just let me know when you find out.
-Sure. I don’t have all the details yet, but I’ll message you later today.
-Great — a text later is perfect.
-Oh, by the way — about our dinner tomorrow… can we rain-check that?
-No worries.

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-Cool. Let’s block off Sunday afternoon for planning the playlist.
-Sounds good.
-Also, I think we should hop on a quick call Friday evening to go over snacks and packing.
-Good idea.
-Awesome — so happy we sorted all this out, always nice catching up with you!
-Same here! Talk soon, bye
Embellish these phone conversations
Role-play these phone conversations
a person called the wrong
department
scheduling the meeting
handling complaints

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dealing with connection issues
providing basic info about the
product